Summary

Chapter 3 is titled “Honeychild.” Johnson begins this chapter with a description of the house in which he and his family lived, of the bedroom he shared with his younger brother, and of how his father was the sort of person who kept all kinds of unused things “just in case” (53). He then describes how, one night, his mother called him into the family living room to discuss a word he had been using in school.

Johnson then tells the story of how he invented the word “honeychild,” and how his usage of it became popular in his school. He describes how it came out of his manner of being both sassy and effeminate, and how his effeminacy came from a variety of sources, including his own nature, his mother, and a female relative whose nickname in the family was...