My vote would be for this:
Ibanez GRGM21M Electric Guitar | GuitarCenter
with one of these:
Roland Micro Cube Combo Amp | GuitarCenter
My opinion is that the Squier strat neck will be too thick for his hands even with a proper setup.
If you wanted a full size guitar, I would recommend the Ibanez Gio... (the strat styled one)
The reason being is that these Ibanez's have the wizard II neck on them. It is thinner/narrower for smaller hands and when setup correctly, they are effortless to press the strings down to make good tone. Best thing is they sound decent and they won't break the bank... just my .02...