Metadiscourse, or an author's presence in a text, and its benefits for improving textbooks and children's learning and attitudes are explored in this paper. Through a historical review, the paper reveals that using the interpersonal voice and the author's commentary are legitimate rhetorical devices. Interviews with prominent contemporary rhetoricians disclose various ideas for improving textbooks with metadiscourse. The paper then discusses a descriptive study of metadiscourse in social studies textbooks and other books that found that books that are not textbooks use more metadiscourse and appear more lively than textbooks. A case study evaluation of a chapter in a typical sixth grade social studies textbook is described and several problems related to metadiscourse discovered in the case study are revealed. An experimental study of the effects of metadiscourse and interpersonal voice on retention and attitude is presented. Finally, the paper discusses the results that indicated metadiscourse was helpful for certain subgroups of students, depending on whether the interpersonal voice was used or not. (A three-page reference list, examples of texts with metadiscourse, and tables of data are appended.) (SRT)