Ylvis' 'The Fox' soon to become a Simon & Schuster children's book

Move over Old MacDonald. The only animal noise kids will care about soon is the sound of the mysterious fox. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers announced today that they plan to publish a book called What Does the Fox Say? The book is inspired by the viral hit "The Fox" by Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis. The three-minute video hit YouTube in the beginning of September and has since garnered more than 216 million views. It was in the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart for three consecutive weeks.

According to a press release, Simon & Schuster announced a first print of 250,000 copies and has acquired North American rights. The book will be edited by Christian Trimmer, Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and is due out December 10, just in time for the holidays.

"I cannot tell you how many times I've watched Ylvis's hilarious, mesmerizing, unforgettable 'The Fox,'" Jon Anderson, President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, said in a release. "The lyrics and playfulness of the song lend themselves perfectly to the picture book format, and I'm ecstatic that Simon & Schuster is publishing Bard and Vegard's first book. Parents and kids are going to have an absolute blast reading What Does the Fox Say? out loud."

It seems that the brother Ylvisaker are down with the whole idea, too. "We are very excited about this book," Vegard Ylvisaker said in the release. "It is much more than just a spin-off from the video. We actually started the process with the illustrator before we even uploaded the video to YouTube. As we were working with the song it just felt like it had the potential of becoming an interesting book as well, mostly because all of a sudden we found ourselves wondering what does the fox really say?"

While you wait for the book to come out, relive the song video that started it all here, and tell us what you think in the comments section below!

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Ylvis, What Does the Fox Say?