Mrs. Goose at the Woodland library announces a summer reading contest to Franklin and his friends: anyone who reads thirty or more books will receive a nifty reading club t-shirt. Franklin and Bear like the look of the t-shirt and decide to try and read really fast so that they can get their t-shirts before anyone else. When they find that their friends are getting great enjoyment out of reading, while they can't even remember what they read, they question the wisdom of their idea.