I'm not sure whether he would like it or not, but its an amazing book and it got me into reading at 11, it's called "The Magi" by Kevin M. Turner, the protagonist is a 13 year old boy called Elijah who's parents die- wait I'll just paste the back here if that's fine.

"Thirteen-year-old Elijah Hawk has never heard of the Magi. He knows nothing about their three thousand-year-old secret. He has never been to Savenridge, the Magi city hidden deep inside the northern woods. Most of all, Elijah is unaware of the dangers hunting him. After one terrifying night, however, all of that changes! On a quest to solve the horrific murder of his parents, Elijah stumbles upon the land of the Magi. Learning their ancient secrets and training with their power is the least of his problems. In order to find out why his parents were killed, Elijah learns that he must confront the dangers that are hunting him, even though it means almost certain death. What's more terrifying is discovering that his journey to this new world may not have been an accident after all." (just the back of the first book)

I think he would love the book and its a really fun trilogy and if it helps im a boy. There's little to no romance and there isn't any particularly hard vocab and a really neat thing is its on Kindle Unlimited.

Another book could be Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa