Well, the obvious answer for you then is to get the Sony A5100.
Though personally for a newbie I'd recommend they get the Panasonic G6 as their first camera (if they have the budget for it, otherwise a Panasonic GH1 or Sony NEX-5N is the way to go).
I wouldn't worry about the sensor size of APS-C vs m4/3, you often have to stop down anyway to get enough usable DoF, so that cancels out any benefit there of having APS-C. Plus, once you use a cheap RJ Lens Turbo (it is great, I use one!) on your m4/3 camera, you've got Super 35mm / APS-C FoV now.