Curse that plague-carrying child! I'm really not fond of books which are so heavily message laden.
The PandaBat loves facts about things. Houdini is fun, and contains accurate information about monarch butterflies. And what a cute little caterpillar he is, too.
This is a Jack & the Beanstalk kind of story, cleverly written in the form of letters sent by the girl who planted the bean to various experts in the fields of botany, zoology, and banking concerning the tree and the various objects that fall from it.