The Saturdays

Mona Melendy is a protagonist in the story and a dynamic character. Mona is described as a fair-haired girl with “two long thick buttercolored braids that she was always threatening to cut off” (4). She is the eldest child in the Melendy family and is a caring sibling to Rush, Randy, and Oliver. For example, when her sister falls into the lake, Mona reassures her and makes sure her sister gets home and dry quickly. While Mona can be very practical, she also has a more artistic and theatrical side. As a lover of literature and plays, Mona often quotes Shakespeare to her siblings. The author writes, “She could (and did) recite yards of poetry and Shakespeare at the drop of a hat” (8). She calls Rush a “cream-faced loon” when he feeds their dog a pickle (123), before assuring him that he shouldn’t be offended, since it is Shakespeare.

Her aspiration is to become a theater actress, and she idolizes famous actors, keeping pictures of them on the walls of her bedroom: “Mona’s side of the room was covered with photographs of actors and actresses; some signed and some just cut out of magazines and thumbtacked to the wall.