I long to live in an Elizabeth Enright book. The childhoods are innocent and filled with games, long sunny summer evenings, a little bit of excitement, and simple pleasures. It’s all very idyllic. Though I like many of her books, the Melendy Family books are my favorites. I have so many fond memories of these books, starting with the fact that all three of them were published in one big fat pink book called the Melendy Family, which I checked out of my school library many many times. I felt like I was getting quite a deal since we were allowed two books per week and by choosing that as one I was really getting to take home four.
The Saturdays is the first book which introduces the characters while they all live in New York City. There’s Rush–a gifted pianist and the second oldest, Mona–the oldest who longs to be an actress and as such is prone to dramatics, Miranda–the tomboy artist, and Oliver–the baby of the family. They live with their adoring father and stern but loving housekeeper, Cuffy. One boring day they come up with a plan to pool their allowances and let each person have the combined total for a special Saturday of his or her own. In this way they can each do something they really want. These Saturdays change their lives.
I first read these books when I was in 4th grade. Since them I have carried with me several vivid images from them that come to me over and over again:
- Mona getting her nails painted and shocking her family. They don’t know how to remove nail polish! (these books are set in the early 40s.)
- Mona in the summer looking beautiful wearing an entire strawberry plant in her hair (I thought of this the other day as I looked at one of my strawberry plants which looked very pretty with its white and yellow flowers and new strawberries.)
- When I weed I think of Oliver, who has the task of weeding the garden and categorizes the weeds by which he hates the most.
- When I contemplate (but never seem to do) canning my vegetables, I think of Mona and Miranda hot and sweaty and proud as they look at all the tomatoes they just canned, looking like rubies in glass in the sunlight.
- On a hot summer night Mona, Miranda, and Rush dangling their feet in a cool brook which has bottles of root beer chilling in it. (This corresponds with a picture of said activity. Speaking of pictures, I was thrilled that these books were recently reissued, but the covers are weird. Enright herself illustrates the books and yet, the cover illustration is by someone else and really has nothing to do with the story. Stupid reissue. Note: I tried to find an image online of the original cover to post alongside here, but was unsuccessful. I did see that almost every review of the reissue mentions the “irresistible new cover art”. Irresistible to whom??)
- Coal Gas. The old fashioned equivalent of carbon monoxide poisoning. Whenever I think of carbon monoxide I think of the whole family almost dying from “coal gas” when the furnace was improperly closed up one night.
The other books in the Melendy Family are The Four-Story Mistake and Then There Were Five. (There’s another book that comes after, but I never counted it as part of those magical first three.)
Note: This is the first of “The Bookshelf” books. For more about the Bookshelf, look at picture above and click on The Bookshelf!
Pookie said,
May 18, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
“childhoods are innocent and filled with games, long sunny summer evenings, a little bit of excitement, and simple pleasures”
Sarah, have you read “Swallows and Amazons”? It has that same feel!
Sarah said,
May 18, 2007 @ 7:36 pm
Haven’t read it, but will add it to the To Be Read!
Paul said,
May 21, 2007 @ 8:13 pm
I love the way you make this book sound so idyllic and peaceful and wonderful. Its not my kind of book, but I enjoyed reading about it and imagining the serenity.
Andy said,
November 20, 2007 @ 1:50 am
The Melendy books are some of my all-time favorites. I’m reading them to my eight-year-old son now, and he loves them as much as I did and do! We’ve just finished the chapter “The Show” in “The Four-Story Mistake”; he jumped up and down and shouted with excitement when Mona found out that she might be able to start her professional acting career now! We love the beautiful descriptions that really capture the time and the places Enright was writing about, especially the feeling of the different seasons as they come and go, and the funny, realistic, way the children talk to each other. I read these books in separately bound copies from my public library as a child, but we’re reading from the fat pink one you mention, which a friend found at a library sale years ago and gave me, because she knew how much I loved the books, and how frustrated I was by only having the Dell/Yearling paperbacks (which even in the 70’s had terrible cover art). The individual books all had Enright’s drawings of the heads of the children and their dog (or dogs, in the third book) down the spine. . . . I wish someone would reissue them!
(I just found your site when I was Googling around, looking for someone to talk to about the books–it’s lovely; thanks!)
Sarah said,
November 20, 2007 @ 11:22 pm
I am so excited you found my site! And lucky you having the big fat pink all in one book. I think it’s wonderful you’re sharing this with your son and that he likes it too. I am hoping to soon put up a page about all my favorite children’s books, as well as a record of my son’s favorite books (he’s only 2, so all picture books for him so far.) Please stop by again!
Janet said,
December 1, 2007 @ 2:36 am
I am sixty years old and I have reread the Melendy family series every year since I discovered them in grade school. They are timeless in setting and charachter. She perfectly evokes life in New York City in The Saturdays, and life in the country with Four Story Mistake, Then There Were Five and Spideweb for Two. I have often wondered if there is a real place somewhere (Wisconsin? Long Island?) where I could go and actually see the Four Story Mistake and the surrounding countryside. Not only does the place seem real, I feel as though this family is as real as my own.
I don’t think any of her other children’s books are as perfect or memorable as these.
Robin M. Schumacher said,
January 20, 2008 @ 2:02 am
Finally, I have found other people who treasure the memory of the Melendy family as much as I did as a child! I read and reread all of them, but The Saturdays was definitely my favorite! I’d love to see an Elizabeth Enright biography and to learn more about her!
Heat Day! « So what? Sew buttons! said,
June 11, 2008 @ 2:27 am
[...] By the way, our summer day ended perfectly with a big thunder and lightning storm and rain! Recommended reading to go with these hot summer thoughts? Elizabeth Enright’s Thimble Summer and of course And Then There Were Five. [...]
Dean said,
May 15, 2009 @ 3:51 am
I need to know desperately if Elizabeth was religious as to propose a slant on her short story The Signature with has a very confusing theme. Many of the lines in the story seem to show that she was either Mormon or religious in some shape or form, I have looked everywhere on Google and no biography or site gives any information on this. Any help please