Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises

by Katie Benner, Erica L. Green

A riveting investigation into a school, a scam, and a notorious college admissions scandal that exposes the inequalities and racial segregation of American education, from two award-winning New York Times journalists

T.M. Landry College Prep, a small private school in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, boasted a 100 percent college acceptance rate, placing students at nearly every Ivy League university in the country. The spectacle of Landry students opening their acceptance letters to Harvard and Yale was broadcast on television and even celebrated by Michelle Obama. It became a national ritual to watch the miraculous success of these youngsters—miraculous because Breaux Bridge is one of the poorest counties in the country, ranked close to the bottom for test scores and high school graduation rates. T.M. Landry was said to be “minting prodigies,” and the prodigies were often black.

How did the school do it? It didn’ It was a scam, pulled off with fake transcripts and personal essays telling fake stories of triumph over adversity. Worse, Landry’s success concealed a nightmare of alleged abuse and coercion. In a yearslong investigation, Katie Benner and Erica L. Green explored the lives of the students, the school, the town, and Ivy League admissions to understand why black teens were pressured to trade in racial stereotypes of hardship for opportunity.

Gripping and illuminating, Miracle Children argues that the lesson of T.M. Landry is not that the school gamed the system but that it played by the rules—that its deceptions and abuses were the outcome of segregated schools, inequitable education, and the belief that elite colleges are the nation’s last path to life-changing economic opportunity.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Education, Politics, Audiobook, Race, Science

259 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 13, 2026

Reviews

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well researched piece of investigative journalism. The fascinating subject of the TM Landry scandal in Breaux Bridge, LA. The way the book is organized by first taking a look at racism, the clear division of class, and the inequality that exists in the south. Blocking opportunities for people of color to a higher education and a pathway to a higher economic future. A perfect setup for the rest of this compelling read.

Tracy and Mike Landry opened a school that promised Ivy League scholarships to less fortunate black students. They came through with that promise and made national headlines. The Landrys “were selling to the colleges this perfect-package student, and to the parents, they were selling hope.” Let me tell you that I couldn’t put the book down as it was revealed the tactics involved for the promise of acceptance to the Ivy League. It was brutal how the kids were treated and TM Landry continued to operate unchecked. I was aghast that the parents didn’t set off alarm bells at this unaccredited, unstructured institution. There are no winners here.

After reading about the hardships, challenges, and determination of some of the students, ‘where are they now’ at the end was a nice addition. Although, it’s despicable that Mike and Tracy slipped through the cracks.

Thank you Katie Benner, Erica L. Green , NetGalley and Metropolitan Books for an early copy.

[Rincey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on a piece that the authors' wrote for the New York Times, this book looks into a college admission scam that happened in Louisiana and how the people and system failed these kids. Really enjoyed this book but it is actually infuriating to see how these kids were used and abused.

Watch my full review: https://youtu.be/T4wUnM68oN8

[Jillian B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating work of long-form journalism about a Louisiana private school that pulled off a years-long scam at the expense of its students’ education. Very little actual teaching went on at the T.M. Landry school, but thanks to schmoozing with admissions officers, fake transcripts, intensive test coaching and heavily embellished personal essays, its proprietors were able to secure the school’s students spots at elite universities. Sadly, many of these students ultimately dropped out of college or transferred to less prestigious schools because Landry had not actually equipped them to thrive.

One really interesting thing about this case is the way the school’s administrators utilized stereotypes about Black students to tug at people’s heartstrings. Students were told to lie in their admissions essays to say they had an alcoholic parent, or grew up in abject poverty, even when they actually had relatively stable upbringings. Ironically, many of the students faced their worst hardships at school, where the teachers wielded physical punishment and frequently degraded the students. It took far too long for the school to receive the scrutiny it deserved because it was churning out the kinds of success stories The Ellen Show loves. Ultimately, it was the students that suffered.

This was an absolute page turner and I recommend it for your next nonfiction read!

[vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worthy story, but the organization, storytelling, and writing leaves something to be desired. Once again, I realize that while the facts and sources are there, a reporter’s work doesn’t always translate well in a full-sized book. (This started from the reporters’ investigative work for the New York Times.) The writing lacks flow and narrative: we’ll be hearing about historical aspects of civil rights history, then swing back to the students’ stories, then get a side tangent about Reagan policies and the Moynihan Report within the same page. I liked learning about the kids, found it interesting to read about unconventional and unaccredited schools and how they have proliferated, learned more about Louisiana. I thought how this book delved into what colleges are looking for (underdog stories and Angela Duckworth’s Grit) was fascinating: college admissions are a big part of the problem to be honest. But I didn’t feel super invested in the myriad of families (needed better focus by the authors) and wished I liked this more.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember when there was that whole celebrity college admissions scandal thing, with the Hallmark Movie actress and the influencer daughter and such? I don’t want to get into it all over again, because that got so much media attention already, and so quickly after it all happened: articles, books, podcasts, documentaries. And was that story so interesting and surprising, really? I mean, celebrities and other rich and privileged people pay to arrange for their kids to get into elite schools, and there are charlatans who step in to assist with that process, for a price, of course? Astounding.


Now, by contrast, this book recounts a similar but far more tragic and shocking, less-oft-told story in which poor, marginalized children, many of color, along with their parents, are taken advantage of by a charlatan-run charter school that takes the families’ money, abuses and neglects its students, fabricates or falsifies information about their academic and other achievements, including for their college applications, somehow manages to fool Ivy League and other college admissions boards as well as the national media, and takes full, boastful credit for their students’ reported 100% college admissions acceptance rate. I think this is the fraud story far more worth knowing, as it illuminates the alarming lack of social safeguards that exist for underprivileged groups whom nobody in power is concerning themselves with protectively monitoring — a problem that has only become more pronounced in the present day.


The authors of this book were the ones who broke the original NYT story, so they are to be applauded, and this book is their definitive account. An important read to keep one’s eyes open as to the work that still needs to be done and what corruption is possible when the wrong person or institution wields unrestrained power over our young or vulnerable citizens.


Thank you to NetGalley, the authors, and Macmillan Audio for providing the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was released on January 13, 2026.

[Holly Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good! This piece of investigative journalism tells the story of The T.M. Landry College Prep School in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Founded by Mike and Tracey Landry, this school benefitted from its success as a pipeline for Black kids to get into Ivy League universities. However, everything they did was a fraud, and some of the stories will shock you. This was so well-researched and reported, not only on the school itself but about racial inequality in education—both the facts and the myths—as well as affirmative action and admissions practices in higher education. The first part of the book is more technical with the overview of racism, but as we get more into the story of the school and the kids, I was hooked. I’m also so excited to see that this was written by women of color, both reporters with the New York Times.

Many thanks to @metropolitan books and @netgalley for this ARC. My thoughts are my own.

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katie Benner and Erica Green are New York Times investigative journalists who've spent years investigating the rise and dramatic fall of the now-defunct T.M. Landry College Preparatory in Louisiana (see this 2018 NYT video they co-produced when the scandal first broke). Benner and Green's 2026 book Miracle Children is a book-length account of their investigation along with updates about many of the key players in this story.

Michael and Tracey Landry founded the eponymously-named and unaccredited T.M. Landry in 2005 as a homeschool venture; neither Landry had teaching credentials or experience. The Landrys' motives were a mixture of well-intentioned (wanting to give disadvantaged Black students a better shot), poorly-conceptualized (lack of credentials and resources to achieve the former aim), Machiavellian (falsifying students' transcripts, essays, and qualifications to achieve their aims), and self-aggrandizing (desire for personal fame and wealth). The school operated in a highly unconventional way, being run out of a trailer and then an unfurnished warehouse, eschewing traditional classes and homework, resorting to Youtube videos for elementary education and a myopic focus on ACT test prep for high school education, and subjecting many of the students to mental, emotional, and physical abuse and punishment by Michael Landry. Meanwhile, Michael Landry worked hard on cultivating a golden image to influential folks at prestigious universities, leading to many T.M. Landry students being accepted by these elite colleges, whether or not they could actually afford them or were adequately academically prepared for rigorous majors.

Benner and Green do a nice job here in explaining the layers of moral ambiguity of this situation in the broad scheme of the increasingly competitive college admissions scene in the US and the lengths schools, teachers, and parents go to boost their kids' chances of securing acceptances (see also: Nicole LaPorte's Guilty Admissions: The Bribes, Favors, and Phonies behind the College Cheating Scandal on the Varsity Blues scandal that broke around the same time). There are many holes in the proverbial Swiss cheese that led to the T.M. Landry scandal, some of which were systemic flaws and others created by the Landrys themselves, and in the end, the kids paid the price.

My statistics:
Book 30 for 2026
Book 2336 cumulatively

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally done. 4 stars. It was a solid narrative that really did well on highlighting the stories of the students, parents and staff at T.M. Landry Prep and the issues underlying so much inequities in education for Black students, but I found this wasn't as organized or sequential as I hoped.

[Karen Adkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Goodreads for the free copy of this from one of their giveaways. This book expends some jaw-dropping reporting from the two authors, NYT reporters, about a college prep school (TM Landry) in Louisiana that seemed to get amazing results (including Ivy League college acceptances) for their pupils. Their early successes earn them laudatory national media and connections with trustees and Deans at the US's most elite institutions. But the promises were a house of cards. The married couple who founded the school (neither of whom had degrees in education or prior teaching experience) ran the school as essentially an ACT prep machine, and relied on heavily falsified letters, personal essays, and extra-curricular to gain selective admissions. The school itself had disturbing, cultish aspects; the principal would humiliate students to keep them submissive, and even briefly choked or strangled a couple students who were resistant to his methods.

Because this school is in Louisiana, and because the couple (Mike and Tracey Landry) and most of the students are black, this subject is particularly freighted. Where Mike Landry is most compelling in this book is where he accurately points out the ways in which K-12 and higher education routinely fail black students. Poorly funded public schools provide insufficient resources, black students (particularly black men) are disciplined and suspended in school more frequently and more harshly than their white counterparts, and highly selective colleges and universities are clubby and insular. The authors insert a few chapters into this book paying attention to this context and history. The school drew families and students for compelling reasons; many parents and students describe the culture of the school, and the emphasis on pride and ambition, as exciting and enervating. Some of their early success is a matter of good recruiting; the Landrys succeed in attracting several superb late teenagers who were already on track to get admitted to highly selective schools.

All of this makes the bait and switch more painful, almost unbearable, to read. Students who were mostly educated at TM Landry gained attendance to highly selective schools and then struggled, because their education was so limited to cramming for the ACT. Parents became suspicious, had their kids tested, and discovered they were multiple grade levels behind. The articles in the Times, published in late 2018, led to the school's unraveling (but stunningly, no federal charges despite what seems like obvious evidence of fraud).

The authors center the students' voices, interests, and experiences in an unjust system. Many of the graduates of Landry find their own paths to flourishing, and their reflections on their time at Landry are thoughtful and varied. As compelling a read as this way, I wanted just a bit more in this book about what it reveals about the deep cynicism at the heart of the path to highly selective universities. The book opens with DuBois' famous line about double consciousness, and one of Mike Landry's most astute arguments throughout this book is that admissions officers are looking for stories and trauma; they are interested in heartwarming stories of grit and endurance, and he will package that for these students' success (even at the cost of inventing drug-addicted parents and the like). But given that this charade was uncovered shortly before the Varsity Blues scandal, which mostly benefited already highly privileged white kids, and given that neither scandal seems to have done anything to challenge the ecosystem and incentive structure for elite universities, this is a dispiriting book to finish. It seems likely that the next iteration of this scandal is probably underway.

[Nikki Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story broke my teacher heart.

Really well written and researched.

[Kate (reeder_reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an E-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for this honest review.

Miracle Children is a wild story about TM Landry—a school in rural Louisiana that was founded on the idea that all kids (especially poor, black kids) can get into top universities throughout the United States. Sounds heartwarming right? Unfortunately, it wasn’t. TM Landry ended up being the ultimate education scam—ripe with abuse, lies and controversy.

While the book’s synopsis caught my eye, the book struggled to keep my attention. I could tell this book was an article that was then optioned for a book. It felt like there was a lot of “fluff” added in to make this story the length of a typical nonfiction book.

Still, it’s definitely a story that needs to be told and made me think a lot about college admissions and educational opportunities for all.

[Christine Hazlewood · Rating 2 out of 5]

While so interesting topically, this book felt like it was a really good and extensive news article that had lots of words added to it for the sole purpose of extending it into a publishable book. I felt throughout like I was hoping for more content about the story itself and less filler prose that occasionally felt redundant.

[Mai H.]

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Metropolitan Books

[Kristina Coop-a-Loop · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises by Katie Benner and Erica L. Green as a Goodreads Giveaway. I am reviewing the published version of the book.

Miracle Children is a disheartening exploration of the intersection of American education and racism. No one comes out a winner in this except perhaps the parents and students who stood up to the Landrys—and lost anyway when the Trump justice department dropped the investigation.

Louisiana is a state so consumed by racism that it has done whatever it can to make segregated education legal, even to the point of allowing schools to exist without having to meet any state educational regulations. It is this lack of regulations that allowed T.M. Landry—supposedly a college prep school but actually a fraud—to not only exist, but flourish and gain national attention. The founders of this private school, Mike and Tracey Landry, claimed to want to have a school for impoverished and disadvantaged black children that would prepare them for top-tier colleges and universities, but instead built a fantasy for desperate parents and their children. Once inside the school, the Landrys exerted complete control over the children by isolating them, bullying them, gas lighting them and controlling them. The school had no curriculum, no grades, no progress reports. It was not accredited and students’ diplomas meant nothing. The Landrys got students into excellent schools (Harvard, Yale, Brown, etc.) by creating fake transcripts and grilling the kids on ACT exam prep. The kids didn’t learn anything; they merely committed to memory solutions to ACT questions and how to solve them. The Landrys also used the racism game to help the kids succeed; they knew that black kids aren’t expected to succeed but when they do, (white) society automatically assumes they succeeded against the odds of being poor, having been brought up in a broken home and surrounded by violence. No matter how the kids were raised, the Landrys expected their students to write college essays about horrible lives surrounded by drugs, poverty, and crime. If the students resisted, the Landrys either wrote the essays for them and submitted them without the students’ knowledge or punished them.

Mike Landry used violence, humiliation and bullying to keep students in line. Even when he was investigated by the state, the investigation was basically dropped because the state had no authority to investigate a school that didn’t accept state funds. Mike would choke kid, hit them, and beat them. The kids often kept these outbursts of violence secret because they wanted to go to college and they knew Mike could make or break their future dreams.

Eventually, skeptical parents, worried that their kids seemed to be losing writing and reading skills instead of gaining them, confronted the Landrys. The school lost students, but the Landrys themselves never faced any charges.

This is an engrossing and depressing read. There’s some educational history explored in the beginning so the reader can understand why there is such a gulf between white and black student achievements—particularly in the southern states where they’d rather have everyone be uneducated (or undereducated) than integrate schools. This sets the stage for seeing how black families and their children would be so desperate as to turn their kids over to Mike Landry, clearly a narcissistic sociopath who cared nothing for the children but only in gaining power, authority, fame and money. It is also depressing that the Landrys started the school to help empower black talented students and get them into good colleges but did so by using the stereotype Mike claimed to despise—the idea that all black kids are raised in poverty and violence and it’s nothing short than a miracle if they manage to graduate high school and make it into a highly rated universities. Of course, he was right—the essays he bullied kids into writing (or wrote and submitted for them) featured that kind of stereotypical black upbringing that the traditionally white wealthy schools loved to read about—and these essays (along with high ACT scores) got T.M. Landry students admitted. They also got a lot of media attention. A white kid getting into Columbia or Havard or Yale? Big deal. His parents are probably rich. A black kid getting into Harvard or Yale? She must be very smart, very determined—and of course had to survive a family history of drug abuse, violence, poverty and who knows what else. Many of the T.M. Landry students did not have this experience. Maybe lower or middle class but not terrible enough for Mike, who yelled at kids that if the essays didn’t make him cry, they weren’t tragic enough.

The book has a bibliography and index and a Where Are They Now? Follow up section. The writing is competent but somewhat boring. I am disappointed that the authors, both investigative journalists, didn’t follow up on the Landrys themselves. Surely they are in another state, possibly under new names, perpetrating the same scam.

I recommend if you have heard of the TM Landry school/scam, saw the videos on social media, or are interested in the connection between education and racism.

[Ashlie Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

11/14 (catch-up)

Thank you to Harper Perennial for this free copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book so eye-opening, and the research was incredible. Not only did Bennet and Green share a story exposing predominantly White elite universities, they also shared a story exposing a Black couple for exploiting their community. We exploit minorities so frequently that we don’t even realize these “success” stories are part of the problem. We’re constantly feeding into the narrative that America love a minority underdog story, but we don’t stop to think that America is also keeping a foot on the necks of minorities.

[Matt Reising · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is pretty wild, but the author does a great job of providing historical and systemic reasons as to how a scandal like this can happen. Without giving spoilers, I’ll just say that the outcome of this scandal is equally shocking to me.

[Steve Peifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes a book hits close to home. Miracle Children is the true story of a private school that falsified transcripts and test scores to aid their students to get into elite colleges.

Some of the experiences (participating in the Harvard Summer Institute, networking with the heads of admissions ) are things I did as a new counselor. The author really understood the significance of that on a guidance practice.

It’s much more than a cheating school. It’s about systematic racism in higher education, the terrible educational system for many poor children and a parent’s longing for a better life for their children blind them to the reality of the school.

It’s such an important book. The authors really understand the issues, and are gripping writers. It will stay with you.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was heartbreaking in many ways. I was living in Canada when this story broke and I barely remember reading about this. This covers the T.M. Landry College Prep scandal in great detail. What’s more, this covers the relevant history of education for Black students in Louisiana which of course touches on the history of segregation and the fall out from Hurricane Katrina. This is about so much more than just the scandal associated with the school.

I’m a proud graduate of Detroit Public Schools. I’ve never met anyone from any nation who had as rigorous of a high school education as I did at M.L.King High School. I was part of a special program and in 4 yrs of high school I completed: 5 yrs of math classes (1 yr I had 2 math classes), 4 yrs of English lit, 4 yrs of science starting with Biology, no high school science, math started with algebra and included calculus. I took 4 yrs of 2 languages: French & Chinese. I took so many hard rigorous subjects that I tested out of math & science at University. I tested out of all basic classes. I was lucky enough to be part of a special program that was fully funded by Chrysler and I think my program was overseen by a local university, maybe State, Michigan or Eastern which was a teachers college at the time. My school predated the “charter” school phenomenon that’s currently ruining public education. My school was overseen by the regular DPS system. So it wasn’t funded like modern Charters as a competitor to regular public schools. Still, it was heavily ruled by Respectability Politics and Joe Clark (from the movie Lean on Me) style discipline. I find that treatment deeply antiblack. It’s often employed by Black educators which makes it that much more difficult to manage.
By the time my daughter was old enough for school, school uniforms had taken over all public & charter schools that had majority Black student bodies. I found it deeply antiblack especially as school shootings were on the rise in schools with primarily white student bodies. As the extreme shootings rose in these schools, still Black student bodies were viewed as needing school “resource” officers and uniforms. It’s thinly veiled racism. I add my own history to express how accurate this research was and how grateful I am that it is finally being discussed.

This explores how informal segregation works in the US and how it impacts schools and students. How white supremacists were able to skirt around the Brown v. Board of Education ruling to keep segregation intact. It worked, the US is more segregated now than during formal legal segregation. This covers how this happened, why it happened, how it is maintained, why it is maintained and efforts by Black folks to try to correct this injustice. This is a powerful education.

At the same time this absolutely tells the story of the students harmed by the Landry’s often in their own words. This is both educational and deeply heartbreaking. I maintain and will always main that books like this make the case for reparations all on their own. The history of racism and its extremely long arm of impact and harm can not be denied in the face of this groundbreaking research.

This audiobook is narrated by Christopher Ian Grant. Christopher does a wonderful job keeping everything moving with this fascinating and heartbreaking narrative. His voice is rich and textured which helps to hold the consumers interest.

Thank you to Katie Benner, Erica L. Green, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

[Avery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really wonderful storytelling and reporting by Benner and Green, both the history of school integration and the soft bigotry of white liberals. I don't think people really understand the history of school integration beyond images of Ruby or the Little Rock Nine. The joke about white people voting against air is not just a joke. As evidenced now, they will destroy this country before they give Black people their due. The North is no paradise and cry all you guys want but I will NEVER set foot South farther than VA. I will never shed a tear for white southerners.

I think this book showed that at the end of the day, children are only as successful as their circumstances. Many children of different backgrounds attended this school, and in the end, they all ended up where they would have ended up regardless of T.M. Landry. Or course a student who came from a highly educated family with active parents was less likely to be knock off course by the chaos of that school than the children who were the first in their family to go to college or who has more instability.

Without the buffers of extra support services to provide true equity, it is not the prestige of the curriculum, or the schools connection to recruiters that will make the difference, if family and parents do not understand the application process or financial aid, or if worse, as evidenced by the book, there isn't the structure or support to get a student through the last eight (EIGHT!!) months of school before graduation. It makes me question what a school is for, and what other resources are needed where because a school cannot be everything but all the other social inequalities are magnified in a school setting.

That said, the parents bear a lot of the responsibility. You are not reading with your child? You don't do flashcards with your child? No matter their career or personal history, this book just proves how disengaged parents are in their children's education. Truly they did less than the bare minimum but some of there parents who doctors and lawyers. Parents do not care about what happens in school so long as they get their kid into college. THIS is why the reading and math scores are going down. Parents only care about a school reputation, but a reputation is just a reputation.

I really enjoyed Miracle Children and the work the authors did to deconstruct how racism and white supremacy made it all possible. I highly recommend this book for a deeper understanding of school segregation and the systems that perpetuate it.

[Vampyre]

Special thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I chose to review this ARC originally as a continuing education read. What I got from it was so much more than I could have ever anticipated.

As I sit here reflecting on the book and the uncomfortableness it has caused. All I can think of is just how did Mike and Tracey get away with this, and where are they now?

The magnitude of psychological, physical, and educational abuse that these young students were subjected to all for the hope of getting into IVY League Schools is abhorrent!

I feel like this is an extremely informative read, even though it crushed my soul. I hope that in time these young people are able to heal from the trauma of their educational leaders, and find a way to grow and succeed in their lives. There’s no education worth sacrificing your health and wellbeing for. Ever.

I would recommend this to fellow educators, career/life coaches, tutors, sociologist, therapists, and parents of young students.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to @macmillan.audio for the gifted early listening copy. #mac2025 #macmillanaudiopartner All opinions are my own.

My reading goals got 2026 include a commitment to read more diversely and include at least one nonfiction title per month. MIRACLE CHILDREN, an examination of a college admissions scandal involving a school in Louisiana checks both boxes.

This book presents a nice balance between historical perspective and investigative journalism. It is a well researched, factual presentation of racism in education; both in the past and present day. It is abhorrent that the disparity in opportunity continues in this country. Equally abhorrent is the way that disparity is used to prey upon and exploit the very group already facing an uphill battle.

Christopher Ian Grant’s narration is excellent. His tone and expressiveness was perfect for this material.

[lindsloveslit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt Books for the digital ARC of this book publishing January 13th, 2026.

MIRACLE CHILDREN is one my favorite books of the year. I graduated with a degree in education 10+ years ago, and I really appreciate reading data driven critiques of our education system. Have y'all heard of this scandal? Reading about the T.M. Landry school and their founders Mike and Tracey, almost felt like I was reading about a cult.

Benner and Green, two reporters with NY Times, did an incredible job of sharing educational history and the racial inequities in education. It was very fact-focused, investigative, and easy to read while also sharing the history of the students and families of those involved in the T.M. Landry College Prep School scandal.

10/10 recommend of you're in education, if you have babies in education, if you care about education, or if you enjoy reading about cults!

[Warren Chu · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up. It’s a classic example of a long form article expanded into a book—filled with long asides to increase the word count. Obviously historical context is important, but in the early part of the book, it meanders through historical explanation rather than concisely tying the history to the school and T.M. Landry. There’s also no examination of the colleges’ role in this scandal. I think it’s worth exploring exactly why the school was so successful in placing its graduates and why the trauma essays that leaned heavily into stereotypes resonated with largely white admissions officers. Those elite spaces have demonstrated a desire for those types of stories, and Mike and Tracey exploited those desires. They’re a symptom of a higher education system that appears to value minority children only when they’ve been abused and subjected to horrific circumstances. I don’t have any answers for how someone can fix this system—especially now that affirmative action has been dismantled—but these students deserved better, both from the Landry’s and the colleges that reviewed their applications.

[Leigh Phillips Rustom · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important story that gives a lot of background on the history of education, especially for Black children, in Louisiana. Thank you to Libro.fm for the educator advanced listening copy.

[Maya Lora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the journalists at the helm of this story started pursuing this investigation years ago, it is incredibly fitting that the book would publish in 2026 as the ramifications of the decision to end affirmative action start to rain down on the futures of Black and brown children across the country.

I'm not sure how popular this nonfiction feat will be outside of journalism and educational circles, but I highly, highly encourage everyone to pick it up. It's a story that will appeal to you even if just from a morbidly interested perspective: Over a decade ago, kids in Louisiana started to go viral. Mostly Black teenagers from a small Southern school were set to go to college at the most in-demand, exclusive schools across the country. They were jumping up and down in viral videos and appearing on Ellen. And then they were getting to college and hitting massive roadblocks, sometimes dropping out - all because nobody properly prepared them to be there. Those students may have mastered the art of standardized testing, but the adults entrusted with their education lied to get them into the Ivy League. They fabricated sob stories for essays that pulled at the heartstrings of college admissions officials desperate to boost their diversity numbers, thinking such improvements may improve the racist stain higher ed had left on the legacy of education in this country. When they weren't being forced to perform on the ACT or shape up lies about their lives, those students weren't learning at all, outside of what they tried to teach each other with the assistance of online programs.

Based on that description, you may fear this novel is fuel for those who say only certain (re: white, perhaps sometimes Asian) children deserve elite educations. They'll argue that children of color simply do not have what it takes. That underlying belief, that extraordinary smart children of color are the exception to the rule, is what pushed the necessity of these lies in the first place. Non-white students are forced to say they overcame incredible adversity to sail to the top of classrooms. They can't simply be smart, driven, talented: they have to be miracle children who overcame incredible odds to land in the same place as their white peers. Never mind the fact that throughout its history, America has done everything it can to avoid educating such children, meaning their ability to apply to college at all shows that they've overcome odds staked against them.

Miracle Children uses this small, unregulated school and the horrors that unfolded there (because beyond a cheating scandal, its founder and owner was incredibly verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive and used the threat of his students' future in college as a way to control their behavior and loyalty) to unpack the legacy of racism in American education. From the violent resistance to integration to the creation of a college admissions system that demands Black and brown pain in exchange for the shot at a diploma, Miracle Children takes you through the horrors of American education as seen through the eyes of children tricked into giving their brightest years away. The book makes it clear that these elite institutions were never granting admission based on merit but on status, and it didn't know how to grant status to non-white students without forcing them to perform as caricatures of themselves for white approval. The story is infuriating and the ending is unsatisfying: not because the authors did anything wrong, but because justice may be something we can force in fiction but cannot always achieve in real life. The story is thoughtful, relentless and powerful, pulling no punches in how we talk about the history of American education and how every time we seem to take a step forward, we are yanked three steps back.

I know this review may sound nihilistic, but it's worth the read. It is worth recommending this book to the people in your life who think race-conscious admissions undid a system of merit-based admissions that never, ever existed at America's most elite schools. It's worth knowing that writing this story changed the way one of the reporters thinks about how we report on American kids, education and systemic failures in our education system, lessons I value as an education journalist.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good and upsetting- I do think that this story was maybe better suited to a series of long form articles than a book.

[Christine Eskilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad indictment of college admissions and societal expectations. Scam artists come in many forms.

[Hernovelidea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maddening that teachers , staff and Universities had no consequences.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating must-read.

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miracle Children is one of those books that leaves you sitting quietly after the last page, trying to process how something so well-intentioned could spiral into such a devastating scandal.

What made this story especially infuriating and heartbreaking was how deeply rooted it was in hope. Education, survival, and the desire to build a better life for yourself or your children should never be a weapon. Yet greed found its way into something innocent and turned it into exploitation.

The research in this book is meticulous. Every layer of the scandal is unpacked with care, clarity, and undeniable evidence. You can feel the journalistic rigor on every page, and it never once feels sensationalized it feels necessary.

One of the most powerful aspects for me was how the authors captured the internal conflict within the Black community. That hesitation to speak up. That discomfort of feeling like you’re “going against your own kind.” And then the even harder truth: how betrayal from within can make you angry, resentful, and deeply disappointed. Something meant to uplift and level the playing field instead preyed on an already vulnerable community and that reality is hard to swallow.

This book doesn’t just expose a scandal; it forces you to confront how systemic inequality, trust, and greed collide and who ultimately pays the price.

Can you imagine taking your children to a school believing you’re doing everything right, believing you’re setting them up for success, only to later find out that when they transition to a traditional school or are tested on that same knowledge, they’re not just behind… they’re failing?

People don’t talk enough about how much that messes with your mind. You think you’re winning. You think your child is thriving. And then suddenly you’re faced with the reality that they’re not even meeting the most basic academic standards needed to succeed in school, college, or beyond. That kind of realization doesn’t just hurt academically, it shakes your confidence.

What made the situation even more infuriating was the way already-successful people were used as the face of it all, paraded as proof that the system worked. But the truth is, the only reason they succeeded was because they were already good to begin with. Their success wasn’t the result of the program; it existed long before it.

And then imagine this, after going through all of that, after investing years of your life and trusting the process, you apply for college or a job… only to find out the school wasn’t even accredited.

That’s when it really hits.

Because at that point, it’s not just about being behind, it’s about realizing you wasted time. Time you will never get back. Years of effort, belief, and trust that ultimately counted for nothing on paper. And that realization? That in itself is crazy.

What makes it even harder to process is knowing that something was taken from these kids, something that can’t simply be given back.

Well written. Thoroughly researched. Emotionally heavy.
4.5 stars from me.


Thank you Netgalley