Enright, Elizabeth. The Melendy Family: the Saturdays. New York: Rhinehart and Company, Inc., 1941.
Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of Enright’s birth month (September). As mentioned before, I read them a little out of order. I should have started with The Saturdays.
This is such a cute book! Four siblings are bored, bored, bored on a Saturday. While they all receive an allowance, it’s not enough for them to each do something every weekend. They decide to form the Independent Saturday Afternoon Adventure Club. Every Saturday they pool their allowances and one Melendy child gets to spend the entire day doing something adventurous of his or her choosing. Ten and half year old Randy goes to the museum to look at art and meets Mrs. Oliphant on the first Saturday. Twelve year old Rush goes to the opera and finds a dog (who he names Isaac, get it?) on the second Saturday. Mona, the only teenager in the bunch, gets her hair cut. Even young Oliver at six years old sneaks to the circus when it is his turn.
One of the best thing about Enright’s books is that she introduces me to a world I will never meet (unless someone really does invent a time machine that works): the 1950s. Because of her writing I learned about Lucrezia Borgia, Jules Clairon, Jane Cowl, and Katharine Cornell. My only panic was when Enright had Rush feed chocolate to his dog. I was taught to think chocolate is poison for a dog!
Quotes, “Fast, with her feet churning and her arms reaching until she had left the knowledge of her advancing age far behind” (p 169).
Author fact: Enright illustrated all of the Melendy books & they are really, really cute!
Book trivia: The Melendy Family is comprised of three of the quartet. Spiderweb for Two hadn’t been published yet.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Best for Boys and Girls (p 21).
~*LunaSea*~ 
I remember reading this! It does have old-fashioned charm, taking the reader back to a retro world. I loved the Mrs. Oliphant part and how she was kidnapped by gypsies! And Mona’s red nail “lacquer” and how mad the father was; imagine how he’d react to a tattoo.
Another aspect of the book that I didn’t include (but wish I had) is that not every Saturday turned out perfect. Enright didn’t shy away from her characters getting into uncomfortable situations.