A young Palo Alto student who set a milestone for his school last year has made another breakthrough.

Abhivir Iyer, a fifth-grader at Palo Verde Elementary School, will represent his school in a regional competition of the National History Bee & Bowl this weekend in Oakland. Finalists move on to the nationals.

Last year, Abhivir was the first to represent Palo Verde in the National Geography Bee, but he didn’t make it past the regional competition. Abhivir may get another chance on the geography side later this year, because he is once again the school’s top qualifier.

Abhivir said he’s not nervous about this weekend’s competition, where he’ll also compete against students in grades up to 12th in the History Bowl.

“I think I just believe in myself,” he said. “I’m confident I can win.”

Pallavi Iyer, Abhivir’s mother, describes her son as an avid reader with a passion for geography and history developed from family trips to India, where they have relatives.

“These travels, combined with his voracious reading and indefatigable curiosity, sparked an interest in diverse cultures, languages, people and history,” she said. “Before he knew it, he was discussing scallywags and carpetbaggers of the U.S. Reconstruction, the politics of modern wars and virtually globetrotting in search of exotic cuisines and sites.”

“He is happiest when he is reading. It’s almost like he’s in a parallel world where he’s traveling around the world in his head,” his mother added, noting that it can sometimes be difficult to get him to put down his extracurricular books during dinnertime or when he is supposed to be doing homework.

Pallavi Iyer admits she is often out of her league when having such discussions with her son, and that even his father, Arvind Kumar, a chip designer at Intel, has trouble keeping up. “He surpasses his dad by far,” she said.

When he isn’t reading, Abhivir likes to design streamlined airports and futuristic airplanes — he wants to be an aviation designer/engineer as a career. He’s also into “Star Wars,” playing football with friends and golf with his father. Abhivir was still reeling from his favorite team, the New England Patriots, losing the Super Bowl — his family moved from Boston to Palo Alto five years ago — but was taking it in stride.

“They’ve had 10 (Super Bowl) appearances,” he said. “There’s always next year. .. They can get the six Super Bowl trophies with Brady.”