Family literacy is frequently taken to mean involving parents in helping to teach their children school-type literacy tasks in the home (for example, Hannon, 2000; Poulson Macleod Bennett, and Wray, 1996). This article presents the case for an alternative approach to family and community involvement in school-based literacy tasks by drawing on the child's agency. The argument is rooted in theoretical, conceptual and methodological advances to studying real-world everyday literacy across the life span and is based on the principles for pedagogy that flow from that work.