There's a homespun humor and an aura of nostalgia about [the] rural anecdotes [in Soup] but the first try at smoking, the confrontation with an irritated neighbor, or the contretemps with a school nurse all seem just a little too hayseedcute, and the book lacks the variety of mood or tempo it needs to compensate for the omission of a story line.

Zena Sutherland, "New Titles for Children and Young People: 'Soup'," in Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (© 1974 by the University of Chicago; all rights reserved), Vol. 28, No. 2, October, 1974, p. 35.