Ypulse Essentials: Zhu Zhu Pets, Decade In Kid Lit, Facebook 'Detox'

Bank of America invests in young artists (with a local competition for Chicago teens to display their artistic talents. Also careful counterculture courting is the strategy embraced by Scion with its new lifestyle site ScionAV.com. And the next step in the Ford Fiesta movement is product integration, with the car being featured in new reality web series “If I Can Dream” ) (Ad Age, reg. required) (MediaPost, reg. required)

- Zhu Zhu Pets as the new Tickle Me Elmo (meaning… the must-have toys are generating more excitement among grown-ups than kids. Plus NPR’s All Things Considered talks to moms about the symbolism of another must-have toy this season: Princess Tiana dolls) (LA Times)

- A decade in kid lit (fantastic retrospective on what 2000-2009 wrought for children’s literature. Also European youth push manga into the mainstream. Plus the cover story behind Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater) (SLJ) (Reuters) (Melissa Walker)

- ‘Shrek: Forever After’ (delights ‘Avatar’ audiences by embracing the 3-D bells and whistles. Plus a fun poll from Wired’s GeekDad on the ‘best of the Geek decade’) (New York Magazine)

- ‘Warm Fuzzy Web’ (New York Magaziner examines the culture of nice online with some noteworthy observations from past Youth Marketing Mashup speaker Alison Mooney of MobileBehavior on how generational differences in social skills translate online. Also teens come together to get over Facebook leading to more “addiction” speak and questions around self restraint) (New York Magazine) (New York Times, reg. required)

- More bad grad news (for humanities majors looking to pursue a career in academia—“Students thinking of going to graduate school in English should understand that right now their chance of landing a job that provides them a livable wage is 50-60 percent” Yikes) (New York Times, reg. required)

-  Co-ed bathrooms on campus (a student at Green Mountain College charges campus officials have an obligation to make sure all public buildings need to have separate bathrooms for men and women) (Inside Higher Ed)

- Habbo Hotel checks into Facebook Connect (allowing users to find Facebook friends through the virtual world)

P.S. Ypulse will publish tomorrow, and then go dark until Monday of next week (for the holiday)