Content warning: this book has past harm to a dog (but it did not die).

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson would today be considered Middle Grade, I think. It’s set in 1908 Austria. Infant Annika is found abandoned in a church and taken in by a Viennese cook and a housemaid, as well as the three sibling professors for whom they work. Annika is a sunny, happy child who learns everything about taking care of a house and cooking, as well as random lectures on geology and art history and music from t...