Hi-Lo Book "with blood and guts and killing and action and stuff"

[RachelAnne]

I work in a school library in the Arabian Gulf. One of my sixth graders speaks excellent English but reads at roughly a second/third grade level. (A-Z Mysteries and My Weird School are series he can handle with difficulty.) I don't think he's finished a book he's checked out in a year, which breaks my heart!

Today, this boy asked me to help him find a book his reading level "But can it be an exciting, scary book with blood and guts and killing and action and stuff?" I made a suggestion, but he doesn't want books that involve slaying monsters; monsters give him nightmares. "Just killing people."

Of course, most children's books his reading level avoid topics of gore and violence, so I am *utterly* stumped.

Suggestions, please?