A possibly depressing children's book about toxic parenting I vaguely remember?

There was a book that I once read, I believe at age 7 or so, I don't remember much, only that the book's foreword stated that the book was mostly depressing, with the exclusion of one nice scene half-way through the book. I feel like the plot of the book was about these children who had to stay in this house under the care of someone ranging between strict and maybe abusive?

This description sounds dark, but also I was in elementary school at the time, I was young enough that it was the teacher who read to class the book, not us students. I'm trying to remember what the book's title was, if there are anyone else who remembered reading them?