Customer Reviews

The Saturdays (Dell Yearling Books)

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Saturdays" has been among my favorite juveniles since I discovered it in the library 40 years ago. I'm now in my 50's and can't count how many times I've gone back and reread it. What a treat to see that, at last, some astute editor has had the savvy to bring it back into print so modern audiences can enjoy it--and in a durable hardcover at that. This is a perfect read-aloud for families, in part perhaps because of the age-spread of the four children: preschoolers will envy six-year-old Oliver his lone excursion to the circus, young teens will identify with 13-year-old Mona's stirrings of adolescent rebellion as exemplified by her decision to have her "long butter-colored braids" cut off, and middlers will like 10-year-old Randy's creation of the Independent Saturday Afternoon Adventure Club and the unique situations that befall her (like befriending the formidable and exotic Mrs. Oliphant or tumbling out of a rowboat on Central Park Lake). Each child is a real human being and an individual character whom Enright draws to perfection. And the setting (New York in, probably, early 1940 or '41) will intrigue the younger generations and bring a glow of nostalgia to the older ones. This book should be in every household library in the land!

My daughter, age 9 and I both read The Saturdays over the past few months along with Four-Story Mistake. We loved this family and found each character fun. I loved their adventures and wish I had read these books as a child. I recommend this book to anyone who values their child's mind and wants to protect them from the abundance of nonsense in some children's literature.

My original review was written 14 July 1998. This is an addition for readers (and potential readers) who are (or would be) as puzzled as I once was when the book said the Melendy children played a noisy game of "Dumb Crambo". Over 20 years after I first read THE SATURDAYS, I was lucky enough to get a copy of VICTORIAN PARLOUR GAMES by Patrick Beaver that includes it.

To paraphrase, in Dumb Crambo, the players are split evenly into two teams. One team leaves the room while the remaining team chooses a verb. When the first team comes back in, the second team tells them another verb that rhymes with the first verb. The first team must guess the secret verb by acting it out. For example [not the one given], if the secret verb is "fly", the first team might be told "try". If they guess it's "spy", they act out someone spying on someone else. If they're wrong, the second team hisses them. The first team keeps trying until they act out the right verb.

It's called "dumb crambo" because it's a variation of a game called "crambo." In the original, only one person leaves the room and any kind of word may be chosen. The guesser is still told a word that rhymes with the secret word. The trick is that you have to ask questions that might get you the secret word WITHOUT naming the word you're guessing. For instance, if you think the secret word is "bus", you might ask "Is it a big ground vehicle that carries a lot of passengers?"

I think it shows something of the personalities and intelligence of the Melendy children that they would enjoy Dumb Crambo.

The weekend is always something to look forward to, whether as a break from school or a job (or both). And there is something extra in the weekends in "The Saturdays," the first of Elizabeth Enright's charming books about the rambunctious Melendy family: money and adventure.

Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver Melendy are bored, one rainy Saturday. But then they come up with a unique idea: since their individual allowances aren't enough for them to do anything, they decide to pool them together, and every Saturday one of them will go on a solitary trip. Thus is formed I.S.A.A.C, their secret adventure club.

Using the money turns out to be an adventure in itself: Mona has a shocking makeover, Randy's artistic explorations lead her to an unlikely friendship with an old lady, Oliver gets lost at the circus, and Rush finds a lovable stray on the way home from the "opry." And when they decide to use the money as a group, the kids continue having offbeat problems...

"The Saturdays" is basically a string of short stories -- aside from I.S.A.A.C., there is no real plot. But it's fun to get to know the Melendy family, and watch as they fall out of boats, deal with minor disasters, listen to tales of gypsy kidnappings, and undergo the growing pains of adolescence.

Since the book was written in the early 1940s, there is a charming "old" air to the book, including a dramatic story near the end where the family almost "suffocaters" from coal gas. It was definitely in a safer time, if preteens were allowed to roam through New York. But the stories themselves could take place anytime, and perhaps anyplace -- falling out of boats, getting to know older and wiser people, and taking pity on animals.

Enright did an astounding job making the family come alive, giving the Melendy kids individual strengths and flaws. They can do unwise things (like Mona's manicure), but the four of them are essentially goodhearted. Backing them up is their loving single dad, matronly housekeeper Cuffy, and scruffy workman Willy.

"The Saturdays" is a charming look at kids having individual adventures, while learning things and stumbling in ways that make them more mature. An enormously entertaining book, part of a charming series.

The Saturdays is a swell piece of reading :)
It is upbeat, agreeable, and not so deep that one would get bogged down by all sorts of disasters, unfortunate luck, etc that befall many subjects in books for the 8-12 set.
Older readers will also enjoy if you're looking for something breezy.
This story seems as if it really could have happened. It's light and amusing, but with a few serious close calls. Parents will enjoy reading to their youngsters, perhaps a few chapters at a time, and more developed readers on their own, or even as a family this book will be enjoyed on a rainy Saturday afternoon or evening, while taking turns reading aloud.
If you love this book, then you will most likely love the others by this wonderfully talented author.
In sum, it is positive, decent and filled with adventure.
The ending is fantastic.

When I was in third grade, a classroom aide gave us the option of listening to her read out loud, or playing on the playground. Her book of choice? The Saturdays. Within the week, every child was choosing to stay in during recess and breathlessly awaiting the further exploits of Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver. At 40 years of age, it continues to be an all-time favorite book of mine, as well as the other books about the Melendys. I consider it a treasure to pass on to my eight-year-old daughter; something we will share and laugh together about for years.

I wanted to respond to the reviews below that thought it was either implausible or dated for children aged 10-13 to wander around New York by themselves. I grew up in New York (in Manhattan, across the park from the Melendys) in the late 1980s. I turned 13, just Mona's age, in 1990. I started walking home from school alone in fourth grade (when I was nine, a year younger than Randy). Like Mr. Melendy and Cuffy, my parents' major worry was that I was careful crossing the street. (Reasonably enough, they feared that drivers would not be able to see a small child.) Many of my friends from elementary school walked or took the bus to school alone at the same age. By twelve (Rush's age), I was allowed to take the subway to visit friends from junior high school, and they took the subway to visit me. By fourteen our teachers assumed that we were competent to find the Metropolitan Museum of Art on our own for projects. None of these people were neglectful, and none of them were "horrified" at the idea of pre-adolescents wandering around the city alone. This was in the supposed "bad old days" when crime was theoretically much higher than it is now, and none of us ever suffered any accident. (Although a group of friends and I got lost coming back from the theater in eighth grade, and were pretty embarrassed that we looked like tourists.)

Anyone familiar with the geography of New York City knows that the Melendy children stay within a fairly small geographic area in THE SATURDAYS, and that the areas where most of their adventures take place are some of the richest and safest in the city. Most sensible New York parents would allow their children to wander there on Saturday afternoons with no more concern than the appropriate ones that Mr. Melendy shows. (Be careful of traffic, don't talk to strangers, and don't get lost.)

Ironically, this ties in with the review that says that Enright did not take enough "risks" with the book, by having her characters get kidnapped by gypsies or run away from home. The fact is, she wrote a fairly realistic description of the childhood of the middle and upper-middle classes of New York City....kids who come into CONTACT with a relatively diverse group of people who have had a variety of experiences, but who actually live in a fairly safe, and sheltered world.

As a New York City kid, I was thrilled to read a book that reflected MY real life experience, as opposed to yet another story about kids who lived in houses with back yards and rode a school bus, and generally had no relationship to my real life. I still love THE SATURDAYS for its loving description of a New York that has in some ways remained startingly the same, even though parts of it have disappeared (no more two way traffic on Fifth Avenue, and no double decker buses!). As other reviews have said, The Saturdays is a charming, well-written book for kids, that can also be enjoyed by adults. It's also one of the few accurate and positive stories about growing up in a great city. I would recommend it for all ages.

I first read this book way back in grade school. I absolutely love it. I have started making a list of books to collect for when I have children of my own, and this one is definitely up at the top! It is a wonderful story, full of twists and turns and some unexpected delights!

I've loved The Saturdays since I was about 8, when I read it for the first time. It wasn't until I was older that I realized: these children had to figure out things for fun, because they didn't have TELEVISION! What a concept! Just look what awesome things they find to do. I'm delighted to share this book, and that added idea, with my son.

I first found this book at a resale shop when I was eleven or so. I bought it for 10 cents. It was one of the best investments of my life. It quickly became (and still is) my favorite children's novel. I enjoyed the stories of the ISAAC club. I really found so many afternoons of enjoyment reading about Miranda's petit fours, Oliver's adventure at the circus, the near death of Mona and of course finding out that "the elephant" was such a great lady. I re-read it as an adult and enjoyed it thouroughly. I reccommend this book to anyone looking for a happy, carefree story of family and adventure.