Background: Little is known about how fine motor skills (FMS) relate to early literacy skills, especially over and above cognitive variables. Moreover, a lack of distinction between FMS, grapho-motor and writing skills may have hampered previous work. Method: In Germany, kindergartners (n = 144, aged 6;1) were recruited before beginning formal reading instruction and were administered a host of FMS, early reading skills and cognitive measures. Results: Analyses indicate that FMS related less strongly than grapho-motor skills to emergent literacy skills. Controlling for grapho-motor and cognitive skills, FMS did not generally explain unique variance in emergent literacy skills. Conclusions: The link between reading and motor skills is highly differential. Findings did not suggest that pure FMS played a significant role in early reading development, however, its close cousin grapho-motor skills--even when devoid of the cognitive knowledge of letters--did.