This book is about the four Melendy children—Mona, Rush, Miranda, and Oliver. They live in an old brownstone house in New York with their widowed father, who is a writer, and their old housekeeper and nurse, Cuffy.

The Melendys are sick and tired of wasting good Saturdays doing nothing but wishing for bigger allowances and so they jump at Randy's idea for the Independent Afternoon Adventure Club. They agree to pool their resources so that each of them can have at least one good spree. As the combined weekly income of the four amounts to $1.60, their financial resources offer enormous possibilities. This results in a series of happy Saturday excursions—to Central Park, the opera, the circus, the beauty parlor... Many surprises happen, for a Melendy with $1.60 and a free Saturday afternoon invites adventure—especially when the money has to be spent that day.

Into this story of the Melendys and their good times, Elizabeth Enright has put much of the color of her own New York childhood. As in her previous books, she shows a penetrating insight into the joys and interests of childhood that makes absorbing reading. THE SATURDAYS is for a slightly older age group than THIMBLE SUMMER or THE SEA IS ALL AROUND, and is for both boys and girls.

From the dust jacket