Based on recent studies in developmental psychology and cognitive narratology, this article shows the impact of Theory of Mind on children’s understanding and apprehension of other people’s thoughts and beliefs presented in fictional texts. With a special focus on the depiction of emotions in two children’s novels, Erich Kastner’s Emil and the Detectives (1929) and Anne Cassidy’s Looking for JJ (2004), it is argued that the representation of the main characters’ states of mind demands specific capacities on behalf of the reader, encompassing mind reading and acquisition of higher levels of empathy, thus fostering children’s comprehension of fictional characters’ life conditions.

中文翻译：

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陌生人心中发生了什么？阅读儿童读物如何影响情感发展

基于对发展心理学和认知叙事学的最新研究，本文显示了心理理论对儿童理解和理解小说文本中他人的思想和信仰的影响。人们特别关注两部儿童小说（埃里希·卡斯特纳的《埃米尔和侦探》（1929年）和安妮·卡西迪的《寻找JJ》（2004年））中的情感描写，认为主角心态的表现需要特定的能力代表读者，包括心智阅读和更高水平的同理心，从而培养孩子对虚构人物生活条件的理解。