On December 23, 1993, Philadelphia, starring the actor Tom Hanks in the first major Hollywood movie to focus on the subject of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), opens in theaters. In the film, Hanks played Andrew Beckett, a gay attorney who is unjustly fired from his job because he suffers from AIDS. Denzel Washington co-starred as Joe Miller, a homophobic personal-injury lawyer who takes on Beckett’s case and comes to terms with his own misconceptions about gay people and the disease. Find Philadelphia at the library.  Find information about HIV AIDS at the library, on hoopla and OverDrive.

Edward Irving Wortis, better known by the pen name Avi, is an American author of young adult and children’s literature. He was born in New York City on December 23, 1937. Avi is a winner of the Newbery Medal and twice one of the runners-up (Newbery Honor). He has written more than 70 books for different age groups and in many different genres including historical fiction, fantasies, comedies, mysteries, ghost stories, adventure tales, realistic fiction, and picture books. Find Avi at the library, on hoopla and on OverDrive.