L'argent de poche [Small Change] may have a story-line which harks back to Les quatre cents coups, but in spirit it is an entirely new work. It is, in fact, the world of that earlier film (or at least, the classroom and escapade passages, rather than the darker borstal section) seen through the rose-tinted filter of the later Doinel films; the result, expressed in a freer form than any other of his works, has an infectious warmth which must be experienced rather than written about….

The film celebrates not popular myths like the 'innocence' of children or childhood, or even the joy of schooldays, but the resilience of the human spirit, both child and adult.

Derek Elley, "Reviews: 'Small Change'" (© copyright Derek Elley 1977; reprinted with permission), in Films and Filming, Vol. 24, No. 1, October, 1977, p. 34.