[Marty sent along a review for me to post.]

The best thing about Mary Griffith’s new book Viral Learning is learning more about Mary. She told me the story about how she became a world famous homeschooling author. What I didn’t know is that her book The Unschooling Handbook and my book Learning At Home: A Mother’s Guide To Homeschooling were published in the same year. Mine in the isolation of Victoria, BC on the West Coast of Canada and hers all over North America.


Viral Learning made me laugh, surprised me and made me want to give Mary a big thumbs up for letting us into her wonderful mind and way of thinking. Not only is Mary someone who writes well, she is a prime example of the viral learning she’s writing about. Her thoughts about education don’t follow straight and narrow pathways – they meander and go off in all sorts of delicious directions - demonstrating the effects of learning without restriction.


I was especially fascinated by Mary’s description of how she sees the world in text. I am always asking people how they think; in what ways do their ideas come forward; how do they internally experience or see the world. Viral Learning gave me a view into the way her mind works – it’s an amazing place.


A must read book for anyone who is homeschooling with their children, is thinking about doing it, and /or has done it. It will make you food for thought. For those new to this way of education, it will give you the courage to explore your own ways of learning. For those who have been there, done that, it will give you an opportunity to reflect on how homeschooling has infected you with viral learning.


--Marty Layne, author, Learning At Home: A Mother’s Guide To Homeschooling