One of the success of a curriculum implementation was supported by the availability of teaching materials such as textbooks. Therefore, textbook development is urgently required especially in Indonesian language learning. Moreover, supplementary text books are also required to facilitate both teachers and students in the classroom to gain students’ good learning outcomes. The text samples presented in 7th grade Indonesian language-textbook in 2013 curriculum are still very limited. Hence, textbooks are urgently needed as a reference book in complementing the existing ones. Teachers and students need some example of texts with a clear structure and various themes to enable students understanding the materials easily. Teachers need certain theories to support materials in the teaching and learning activities, including linguistic theories. Good textbooks must meet the standards, lesson content needs to be considered, in term of (a) the suitability of the material with the curriculum and educational purposes, (b) the truth of matter seen from particular disciplines of each textbook, and (c) the suitability of the material with students’ cognitive development. The presentation of the material must meet the following criteria,: (a) learning objectives, (b) phases of learning, (c) the presentation that attracts students' interest and attention, (d) easy–to-be-understood materials, (e) students’ participation, (f ) the relationship of one materials to another, and (g) exercises and problems. Language aspects and readability are also observed, including the following criteria: (a) the use of standard Indonesian, (b) the use of language which triggers students’ creativity and reasoning, (c) the use of sentence structure in accordance with the students’ mastery level development, (d) the use of paragraphs, and (e) the material and illustrations, including books and graphic formats.

Keywords: textbooks development, critical review, expert.