When I went to the Highlights week-long workshop on writing for magazines in March, one of our teachers was Lou Waryncia, head of the Cobblestone family of magazines. He stressed the importance of a good lead ("Kids will bale if the first 2 or 3 sentences don't grab them") and he suggested including the lead paragraph in your query letter. He said the query should also list the intended age range, and think about how you can speak to both sexes and how you'll give the article your unique slant. When I queried, I sent a cover letter, an outline of my article, and a bibliography of references. Unfortunately, these are magazines that do not respond unless they are interested, and I never heard back so I'm assuming they weren't. But best of luck to you! They are great magazines.
