Alex the Lion is the king of the urban jungle as the main attraction at New York's Central Park Zoo. He and his best friends Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo have lived their entire lives in blissful captivity, complete with lavish meals and their own park views. Not content to leave well enough alone, Marty allows his curiosity to get the better of him and, with the help of some prodigious penguins, makes his escape to explore the world he's been missing, intending to return before morning. In the middle of the night, Alex, Melman and Gloria discover their friend is missing and decide the only course of action is to break out of the zoo and get Marty back home before anyone notices. Even in New York, a lion, giraffe and hippopotamus wandering the streets and riding the subway are bound to attract some attention. Alex, Melman and Gloria manage to track Marty down in Grand Central Station, but before they can catch the train home, they are darted, captured, crated and put on a ship to Africa by well-meaning humans who think they should be free from the stress of New York life. When those plotting penguins sabotage the ship, Alex Marty Melman and Gloria find themselves washed ashore on the exotic island of Madagascar. Now, these native New Yorkers have to figure out how to survive in the wild. [There are lemurs on the island, who have dance parties, and they are constantly being attacked by the Foosa. Alex the lion scares the Foosa, so the lemurs try to make friends...but Alex gets in touch with his inner lion and starts seeing his friends as steaks. Eventually he overcomes it to save his friends from the Foosa and he scares them all off, and there's a party at the end where the lion learns to love sushi.]

 

This book is part of a book series called Cine Manga .

There are 96 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2006 by Tokyopop Press Inc .

Based on the bestselling book series by Cressida Cowell, DreamWorks Animation released two animated feature films in 2010 and 2014. Hugely successful, the films received both Oscar and BAFTA nominations. A third film is planned for a 2019 release starring Cate Blanchett and Jonah Hill. The franchise also consists of four short films: Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (2010), Book of Dragons (2011), Gift of the Night Fury (2011) and Dawn of the Dragon Racers (2014).