by Sharen Baylor Scott (Author)
Mr. and Mrs. Downing raise geese on their farm, so many geese you wouldn't believe your eyes, geese here, geese there, honking noisy geese every where. All the geese looked forward to the spectacular "Shake Your Feathers Contest", held during the summer inside the big red barn. Every family that participated wanted an opportunity to win the beautiful blue ribbon trimmed in gold. Each participating family enters the barn to shake off all their feathers. The family with the largest pile of feathers wins the blue ribbon.
Eleanor, the newest member of the Downing Farm, is a quiet little goose. Unlike all the other goose mothers, she had only one egg in her nest. The other geese would tease her, especially Mean Melvora, who just happened to have the largest number of eggs, would say, "we don't have to worry about you contest day". Eleanor ignored their teasing because she was certain her one little egg was a very special egg.
The eggs hatched, and every goose mother paraded their family around the farm yard proudly, including Eleanor, with her son Martin, as she reminded him how special he is. Time passed, soon it was contest day. The mothers continued to tease Eleanor and their children teased Martin, saying "we don't have to worry about you contest day." Well, Martin didn't like being teased and convinced his mother to participate in the contest.