ART MEETS SCIENCE IN EARLY LITERACY: A PRACTICE-LED MODEL FOR CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY IN BILINGUAL FAMILIES

This practice-led, design-based research presents the development and early evaluation of "Anya and a Thousand Fish," a bilingual (Russian-English) picture book with a digital and printable resource ecosystem. The research explores how a bilingual picture-book ecosystem may create conditions supportive of cultural sustainability and socio-emotional engagement within bilingual family contexts. Art, narrative, and digital scaffolding support cross-language literacy and facilitate reflective dialogue. Methods include iterative prototyping, parent-child participation, and inductive thematic analysis. Five emergent themes reflect parent-reported perceptions of engagement with emotional vocabulary, family co-reading, cultural connection, extended learning, and creative expression. The researcher served as book creator, session facilitator, and sole analyst, introducing potential bias mitigated through transparent documentation of methodology. The study acknowledges limitations in sample size, the short duration of the evaluation, and the fact that all findings are based on adult observations rather than direct assessments of the children.