Author(s):Elizabeth Enright
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Publication Date: 1941 originally and 2002 republished
Why I Picked it Up: A coworker recommended it to me when I was whining about waiting for the next Penderwicks book.
I am a modern girl in many ways. I like my trashy reality television, am semi-addicted to my iPhone, spend more time on social media than is probably healthy for my actual social life, and love to read the newest ficiton popping up on the NYT best sellers list.
But there is another part of me, a part of me that I think most voracious readers have that loves to fall into older fiction. Where even the worst acts are portrayed in a softer, more polite way than is seen in our hard-edged, HD focus modern world. There's something about these kind of books that are deeply soothing and allows characters to be much more real and sympathetic to me than they may be in modern fiction, where they tend to remain just characters on the page for the most part.
Within the realm of older fiction, I have a particular soft spot for older children's literature. Some of the reading I do of these types of book is definitely nostalgic and by rereading Anne of Green Gables and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn every few years, I am recapturing a piece of myself that is 11 years old and spending long summers in the public library and on sunny beaches with a stack of books. These books also remind me that I can never be 11 again, and I'll never get to climb in Gilbert Blythe's row boat with Anne Shirley for the first time. So I seek out new children's fiction to give me both that softer old fashioned feel and the feeling of being 11 and discovering a new fictional friend all at once. The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright was one of those books that satisfied these two very particular desires.
The Goodreads description:
Meet the Melendys! Mona, the eldest, is thirteen. She has decided to become an actress and can recite poetry at the drop of a hat. Rush is twelve and a bit mischievous. Miranda is ten and a half. She loves dancing and painting pictures. Oliver is the youngest. At six, he is a calm and thoughful person. They all live with their father, who is a writer, and Cuffy, their beloved housekeeper, who takes on the many roles of nurse, cook, substitute mother, grandmother, and aunt.
If you were only allowed to use one word to describe this book that word would absolutely have to be charming. The relationships between the children and their father and nanny-housekeeper, Cuffy are warm and simple in a way that relationships only ever are in older fiction, with the main focus being on how the children relate to each other. I will admit that as a child this type of book and the idealized sibling relationships within it made me bemoan my relationship with my siblings as deeply flawed and unrepairable, while in fact we fought no more than any other set of siblings. This very reason, however, is why we read books like this; for the idealized world they contain, as the author felt no need to portray the gritty side of reality.
Although a particular year is not mentioned (in fairness I could have missed it or am just not recalling it), the books seems to take place in the years leading up to WWII, with mentions of Hilter and Mussolini, as well as very poignant reference by one of the children who wonders what it would be like to live in a peaceful world. Other old-fashioned touches occur when the children mention how they spend their allowance on visits to Broadway shows, the Opera, the circus, and to the beauty salon for a haircut and manicure, all for less than $1.50 per activity. The children also enjoy an extraordinary level of freedom almost unimaginable for a child today as they are allowed to wander in Central Park and rent a rowboat there, without adult supervision.
In general I would say pick this book up. It's a fast read, but utterly charming and will definitely leave you smiling.
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