A Sliver of Stardust by Marissa Burt

Wren just wants to beat Simon in the competition.  He's smart and really gives her a run for her money.  When she sees a bird in the classroom, she's flabbergasted.  Where did he come from?  Why doesn't anybody else see him?  Then she notices that Simon does...

HarperCollins and Edelweiss allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published October 20th.

Once the children find out they are "Fiddlers", their world changes.  They sneak into a hidden world and are there to learn about their magical skills.  It's not safe there, though.  There's an evil magician that wants to come back and take over this world.  He's got someone on the inside.  And not all the Fiddlers even want them there.  What a tough way to learn!

There's mystery, intrigue, and more in this story.  Wren cannot get her falcon to accept her.  She's not fond of it and it returns the same feelings.  She's supposed to use a nursery rhyme to make her grow but she won't even come to Wren.  She feels like a failure.  However, Wren's the one that figures out what's going on.

There's lots of action, plenty of nursery rhymes and great danger here.  Imagine playing war while riding falcons, especially if you just learned how!  Stardust can be dangerous, too.  And when you don't know exactly what your magic will do or how powerful you are, that's dangerous too.

It's not a boring story.  I think a bit more character development would have helped.  There were a lot of characters and that diluted the story a bit more.  This is the first in the series.  The third apprentice has not awakened yet.  I imagine that's where the next book will start.