When it comes to being extinct, the first name that leaps to one’s mind is the Mauritian flightless dodo. After all, the dodo bird went extinct in the late 1600s and even has a famous morbid phrase dubbed after it. But in Venita Coelho’s Dead as a Dodo, the extinct bird gets a new lease of life. After Coelho’s first book, Tiger by the Tail, Agent No 11.5 Rana makes a comeback, along with Agent No 002, Bagha the brave tiger; and Agent No 13, Kela, the mischievous and always-in-trouble grey langur. Rana has a special gift — he can use ‘JungleSpeak’ to communicate to animals, and for this skill, he’s part of the Animal Intelligence Agency.