My dear son just started 9th, too. I chose poetry...he reads a new poem on Monday and I time it. We continue until Friday with the same poem and "oogle" over his improvement by Fridays timing. These poems are several stanzas...not limerick types.
I believe the rhythm and rhyming will speed up the reading progression. I'm looking for fluency...it's absolutely grueling for me listening to him read. It must be worse for him to actually do it! It's the " um...um...um..." and the overlooking of suffixes, the flipping of vowels, etc. I don't know if laziness is an issue...so I'm looking for books/poetry that might interest him instead of interesting me!