WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY, Book Based on YouTube Sensation, to be Published by Simon & Schuster

14th November 2013, London-Simon and Schuster Children's Books UK today announced they will publish a picture book based on YouTube sensation of the year, The Fox in time for Christmas 2013.

Ingrid Selberg, MD for S&S Children's, acquired UK & Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in the picture book from Simon Green at Creative Artists Agency. S&S UK will publish on 12th December this year, alongside S&S US, simultaneously in hardback and paperback.

The song, created by Norwegian comedy duo, Ylvis (brothers Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker), has received more than 212 million hits on YouTube since its release on 3rd September, and has taken the globe by storm as the viral video story of 2013. The lyrics ponder the question, "what does the fox say?" with suggestions including "Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding" and "Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!"

The Ylvisåker brothers are both talented musicians and have worked as comedians and talk-show hosts in their home country for many years. They currently host a late night talk-show, Tonight with Ylvis, on Norway's TVNorge, which mixes interviews with comedy sketches, pranks, and of course music video parodies. The pair set out to make the silliest video they could come up with for the third series of the show. The Fox, combining high-quality production values with hilarious lyrics, immediately went viral.

Bård and Vegard first explored the idea for The Fox with illustrator Svein Nyhus. They said: "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."

The picture book, What Does the Fox Say? pairs the fun song lyrics with playful artwork by Nyhus, a Norwegian children's book author and illustrator. "In making this book, much like when we made the video, it was crucial for us to pair up with the best of the best," said the Ylvisåker brothers, "Svein Nyhus did remarkable work creating the illustrations we wanted. The book captures the very essence of the idea - to combine an extremely absurd and stupid idea with masterfully crafted visualisations. The level of detail in Svein's drawings makes this book fun to read over and over. Hopefully kids will enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it."

What Does Ingrid Selberg Say? ... "I'm delighted to have acquired the rights to publish this extraordinary picture book. Not only is this an incredible YouTube sensation, known to every child parent in the country, but it is now a beautifully illustrated picture book perfect for reading aloud and sharing - for a hilarious, madcap storytime - which will be a huge hit."

Ylvis will be in the UK this week for high-profile media appearances, including BBC Children in Need and the Paul O'Grady show as well as various print interviews, before heading to the US for a major publicity tour to promote the book.

Watch The Fox video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

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