Music on Kohatu Street

By J L Williams

A secret staircase in an old house takes twelve-year-old international concert pianist Jasmin Lee to 1893 - the year New Zealand women won the right to vote. Trapped in the past with her new friend Leo, she meets a musically gifted boy from a poor family. Can she help him? And can she get back home?

Twelve-year-old concert pianist Jasmin Lee has spent her life on the road. She's brilliant, tired, and done with music. When her parents take her to Kohatu House to rest, she expects only a quiet holiday. Instead, a carved wooden arch, a whispering melody, and a secret stone staircase drop her into 1893 where a musically gifted eight-year-old boy named Jacob

plays a tin whistle on dusty streets.

Trapped between two eras, Jasmin must decide whether to insist on rejecting her parents' plan for her, or sacrificing everything for Jacob. As Jasmin and her friend Leo negotiate the world of 1893, Jasmin discovers she's stronger than she thought, that music can mend wounds no other language can, and that friendships can defy time.

A tender, adventurous time-slip tale of courage and compromise, Music on Kohatu Street asks one quiet, bracing question: what would you be willing to give away so someone else could have a life?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1738595196
• ISBN13: 9781738595198
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: Ocean Echo Books
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7