Purpose: This short article takes the play and passion of children's literacy as its focal point. Rather than orienting reading and writing around what should be taught or how children should respond and understand written text, in this short reflective essay we aim to explore the play and passion inherent in children's literacy practices. We do not aim to precisely conceptualise or delineate the nature of play or passion but, instead, to trace the path of these ideas through seminal research studies within the field of New Literacy Studies as well as drawing on the authors' fieldwork. Design/methodology/approach: This paper begins with an exploration of foundational research in the field of new literacy studies, drawing attention to the abundant presence of children's play and passion. Then, it visits two moments of play and passion from the authors' fieldwork that suggest ways of thinking anew about children's literacy practices beyond responding to text. The first, by Kenneth Pettersen, considers childhood collecting across home/pre-school settings in Norway; the second, by Stefan Kucharczyk, looks at children's curatorship in Minecraft at an afterschool videogame club in the UK. This paper concludes with a proposed reimagining of literacy education, outlining implications for researchers, policymakers and practitioners. Findings: These observed moments of collecting and gaming are analysed in the context of children's play and passion. In both cases, we highlight how observing children following their passions and interests can challenge how we, as adult researchers, view their play and how we think about literacy. Rather than being in opposition to one another, our analysis of children's collecting and worldbuilding account for the felt experience in children's literacy practices. Originality/value: Moving inside of two separate research studies, we give a bird's eye view of what can be gained by observing and drawing out play and passion while children respond and make meaning through varied texts and objects in two different contexts. The article therefore is an invitation to think otherwise about reading and writing by embracing play and passion as children's pathway into rich literacy moments.