Using Literature to teach Science

Last week I was in my 3rd grade placement and was able to teach a unit on matter with my partner. The students did not use the textbook that the teacher had available in the room, but she invited us to use the teacher's manual as a resource. Although we taught most of this lesson using hands-on activities including a science inquiry investigation, we were able to incorporate one trade-book into the curriculum. This book was Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. We read this to the class and then had them predict if they thought the oobleck (green goo falling from the sky in the form of precipitation) was a solid, liquid, or gas. After they had listened to the book and made their predictions, they were able to make their own oobleck to experiment with and create more observations and evidence to either back up or change their original thought. Although this tradebook fit in quite nicely and was enjoyable to the students, I wish we would have incorporated more books. This might have been easier to do if there were more time alloted to us, but we only had less than an hour every day for one week.

I researched some books that would be good to use in a matter unit for the next time that I will be teaching this topic. On the website http://wow.osu.edu/experiments/statesofmatter/psm1/childrenslit.html
I found the following books list:

1. "The Magic School Bus Ups and Downs: A Book About Floating and Sinking." By Jane Mason, illustrated by Nancy Stevenson. Book adaptation of an episode of the animated TV series The Magic School Bus, based on the series by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degan. Scholastic, Inc.: New York, 1997. ISBN 0-590-92158-4.
   
2. "Starting With Science: Solids, Liquids, and Gases." By The Ontario Science Centre, photographs by Ray Boudreau. Kids Can Press: Buffalo, 1995. ISBN 1-55074-195-0.
3. "A Drop of Water." By Walter Wick. Scholastic Press: New York, 1997.
   
4. "Liquid to Gas and Back." By J.M. Patten. The Rourke Book Co., Inc.: Vero Beach, 1995. ISBN 1-55916-129-9.
   
5. "Matter Really Matters." By J.M. Patten. The Rourke Book Co., Inc.: Vero Beach, 1995. ISBN 1-55916-124-8.
6. "The Usborne Illustrated Encyclopedia: Science and Technology." Usborne Publishing: London, 1996.
   
7. "The Usborne Internet-Linked Library of Science: Materials." By Alastair Smith, Phillip Clarke, and Corrine Henderson. Usborne Publishing: London, 2001.
8. "What is the World Made of? All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases." By Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, illustrated by Paul Meisel. HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 1998. ISBN 0-06-445163-1.

There is a summary available to be viewed with these books, and the website also gives a link to properties of states of matters experiments. If I was aware of this website before my unit, I would have tried to get my hands on as many as I could. If there was no time for reading these as a class during the unit, I would at least like to put them in the classroom library so the students could read them independently. I'm sure that lists like this would be available for any science topic that a teacher would need to teach.