The role of parental literacy skills in cross-linguistic transfer, the phenomenon of the sharing of skills and competence from one language to another, is under-researched. The present study tested 147 Hong Kong Chinese children and their parents (76 boys; mean age = 7.16). Parental literacy skills significantly explained children's reading and spelling in English after controlling for socioeconomic status, highlighting the role of parental skills in facilitating children's second language development. Cross-linguistic transfers between Chinese and English were found between reading and writing after controlling for age, grade, non-verbal intelligence, and socioeconomic status. The results were replicated with another twin sample.