Georges and his parents just sold their house and moved into an apartment after his dad lost his job and money gets tight. Well, Georges and his dad move; his mom is always at the hospital where she works, but she and Georges communicate by Scrabble-tile messages spelled out on his desk each night. Georges is lucky to make a new friend in the building: Safer, who runs the Spy Club and sets them to spying on Mr. X, the mysterious neighbor. It's a friendship even if both parties are hiding things from each other, but eventually they'll discover each other's secrets and untruths. 
 This is Stead's most realistic story yet (no time-travel or underground worlds), and her characters are always so REAL. I didn't live this--there's something that holds me back from loving her plots--but her characters are so real and genuine. I want to find--no, I think I already know--several more 6th-grade Georgeses (Georgess?) and tell them that it will all be okay in the end, which is what this one Georges eventually found out.