The Saturdays (Elizabeth Enright novel)

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The Saturdays (1941) is a children's novel by Elizabeth Enright, the first of her four books about the Melendy family, followed by The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, and Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze. The Melendys live in a slightly worn New York City townhouse. The father is a widowered professor of economics with four gifted children: Mona, Rush, Miranda/Randy, and Oliver; and a housekeeper, the beloved Cuffy.

[edit] Plot

A boring, rainy Saturday inspires the Melendy children to form The Independent Saturday Afternoon Adventure Club: they will pool their weekly allowances so each member can go on a special Saturday outing alone. They are testing their talents and growing maturity, but more important incidents come as secondary consequences to the cultural adventures: a new friend, a stray dog, gas poisoning, a house fire, and a new summer retreat.