Hitty! I was kind of meh about a lot of the classic girly books -- too much dull domestic stuff, not enough adventure for my tastes; and I wasn't all that into dolls as a kid (if they'd been as customizable and posable as my current BJD collection, it would have been another story...) -- but I really enjoyed Hitty. I was already a bit of a history buff, so I think it was that sense of the depth and passage of time that made that one work for me.

I haven't quite sorted out what distinguishes beef TEA from beef BROTH. It's so weird!

My understanding is that "tea" is just made by simmering boneless meat, with only a bit of salt of flavor, while "broth" is made by simmering meaty bones and may or may not contain additional spices and/or aromatics for flavor: this 1917 cookbook goes into some detail on the beef juice/tea/extract/broth/soup variations.