The arrival of the digital age requires new approaches to understand the literacies used in making meanings from multimodal communications, and a rethinking of the ways in which research into these areas can be used to support learners in the 21st century. This presentation examines the range of literacies children have developed and used to make meanings when engaged with popular culture multimodal texts. The study encouraged 4 children (2 boys, aged 9 and 10 and two girls, aged 11 and 12) to share their experiences about texts that are generally marginalised within the traditional school culture, but that are part of children's everyday experiences. The Pokemon phenomena was used for investigation in this particular study. A model based around the multiliteracy elements identified by The New London Group (2000) has been developed to show the specific ways children use these elements to construct meanings across multimodal texts. This work has profound implications for educators who want to support children in their development of literacy abilities for life in contemporary society. (Contains 26 references and 1 table.) (Author/RS)