The Berenstain Bears' Really Big Pet Show

If nobody is the winner, isn't everybody the loser?

If I didn't know better, I would think they were intending to write something about the "entitlement generation." Because, seriously, that's what this turns out to be. "I can't decide who is the best! Everybody gets a prize!"

The family has pets. They go to the pet store. They buy a parakeet. The parakeet can talk. I haven't had that experience with parakeets, but I've heard it's possible. They have so many pets in their house at that point, that Mama, the chairwoman of the Beartown Festival Committee, brings up the idea of a pet show at her next meeting. They decide to put on a pet show, and everybody brings pets.

The mayor is the judge. In what seems to me an obvious bid to secure his re-election, he decides that "all the pets here are very, very special" and "they all should receive a ribbon!" So everybody gets a ribbon. And then the parakeet, which they thought was male, lays an egg. Apparently that's a thing that happens on rare occasion even without males, and not just in chickens. Although it usually freaks out the bird a bit. And then they rename the parakeet, because "Keats" doesn't sound like a girl's name. The end.

The best part: "Little Lady got the ribbon for 'Best Collar' and Gracie for 'Biggest Bow.' Goldie was 'Best Behaved.'" (Goldie is a goldfish.)