Life magazine covered the story, and
Annie Leibovitz took photos of the class for
Rolling Stone. "Mill Valley" was described as an "off beat, delightful salute to the California locale," an "important chart item," and a "[potential] left field giant" by a writer for
Billboard magazine, who furthermore compared it to
Frank Sinatra's "
High Hopes," likely due to its children's singing choir and similar song arrangement. A writer for
Record World wrote of the track, "Cute as can be, here is a teacher and her class singing the praises of their town. All kids should have teachers like this." Reviewer
Greg Adams of
AllMusic, called the song "enchanting," "heaping innocent charm," "well-crafted," saying of the song, "Only the most hard-hearted cynic could find no enjoyment in this minor masterpiece of early-'70s soft pop," going on to compare Abrams' "clear, pretty, girl-next-door voice" to
Lynn Ahrens of
Schoolhouse Rock!,
Karen of
The Carpenters, and the
Sesame Street theme song. Author Kim Simpson highlights the song's "soothing, innocent-sounding voices" and the "childlike simplicity of how it became a hit," and furthermore suggests that the song "stirred up a craving among American listeners for the voices of children," in her 2011 book ''Early '70s Radio — The American Format Revolution,'' while author Joyce Kleiner highlights the song's "sweet and sentimental lyrics" in her 2014 book
Legendary Locals of Mill Valley, California. == Aftermath and legacy ==