AUBURN – When 12-year-old Kirsten Poulin looked at Junior Scholastic, a popular national news magazine for kids, she saw a publication that needed some help.

Its photos were cool, but the history articles were kind of boring. It needed more stories about animals, she thought. It needed more games.

So she shared her thoughts with the magazine’s publisher.

Two months later, the St. Peter and Sacred Heart School sixth-grader continues to critique Junior Scholastic. Only now, magazine editors ask her to do it.

Poulin is one of the newest members of Junior Scholastic’s 2005 Student Advisory Board.

“We were very impressed with her letter. She was extremely articulate,” said Suzanne McCabe, editor of Junior Scholastic.

Poulin was one of only 10 children in the country selected to serve on the board. She will spend the next year helping Scholastic officials decide what millions of middle school students will see in their magazine.

Said Poulin: “My ideas are kind of fun, I think.”

The small Student Advisory Board was established nearly 10 years ago. Each member serves for a year.

This fall, as the 2004 term began to wind down, Scholastic advertised for new members. Poulin saw the ad in a Junior Scholastic she got at school.

“I wanted to try writing to them. I thought it would be kind of fun,” she said.

Poulin’s one-page letter told editors she would like Junior Scholastic to offer more stories on animals and the rain forest, to present games and short plays and to dedicate one page to a U.S. state in every issue.

In careful, curly script, Poulin ended her letter with: “I would try to make Junior Scholastic more fun for everyone. My Junior Scholastic would be awesome and interesting!”

Several dozen students applied for the advisory board. A couple of weeks ago, an editor called St. Peter and Sacred Heart School to say she loved Poulin’s letter and that Scholastic had chosen her for the board.

Poulin couldn’t believe it.

“I didn’t think I’d win,” she said.

She will spend the next year consulting with Scholastic adults about ideas, story angles and other magazine content. When editors want a student’s perspective on a story, they will call her.

Poulin hopes to get the magazine to swap its traditional articles for something a little more interesting.

“Some of the stuff I really don’t like in it. There’s too much history stuff,” she said.

The full advisory board will be announced in the Jan. 10 issue of Junior Scholastic. The magazine usually comes out twice a month.