Despite a recent stroke that affects his speech, bestselling children's author Robert Munsch can still do what so few can: mesmerize kids with old-fashioned storytelling.

Hamilton fans with tickets to see Munsch tomorrow night at Hamilton Place are among the lucky few who will have a chance to see his show before he takes up to a year off from most public performances to recover his health.

Some local kids got a preview by attending one of three shows at Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts in Brantford on Monday.

"We were so excited to see him. He was fabulous," said Ancaster mom Danielle Cloutier, who attended with her parents and 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Alexandra.

Cloutier grew up on Munsch tales; her mother was a kindergarten teacher. Now, she reads them to her own daughter.

Munsch, 63, said the stroke he suffered in August affects his ability to speak and reason. Sometimes he has a fleeting memory loss onstage. "It occurs once every minute," he says. "Most of it is transient, but the audience doesn't notice."

You'd have to listen carefully to catch the occasional stutter or rare forgotten sequence in the story he must backtrack to tell. With a mix of solo storytelling and randomly inviting kids from different schools to join him onstage, the Guelph author keeps the young audience spellbound with his animated expressions.

His eyes bulge. His tongue wags. His voice booms to be a speeding car or squeals to be a nagging mom. He kneels, he jumps, he sings phrases from his stories. Without a single prompt, the audience sings, claps and acts along with him.

Kids jump from their seats, arms flailing, hoping to be picked to go onstage.

"He keeps the kids right there in the story, the way he tells it. It's so perfect for kids to come out to this," said Kim Schweitzer, of Burlington, who took her three children, Madison, 8, Kyle, 6, and Jason, 4.

Expect no glitz. There are no costume changes, bright lights or jumbo screen. It's just Munsch with his mike doing his magic. In the hour-long performance, he tells more than a dozen stories -- including classics such as Mortimer and Love You Forever.

He even gets big kids onstage. James McDougald, who was plucked from the audience to play the fiery dragon who steals Prince Ronald in The Paper Bag Princess, gushed afterward as he described what it meant to be onstage with Munsch.

"If there is a god of children's literature, I stood and flew on his right hand," said McDougald, an educational assistant at Our Lady of Fatima School in Brantford. "It was a thrill."

A sea of arms, little and long, cradled imaginary babies as Munsch gracefully told the tale Love You Forever, a book that has sold more than 18 million copies. With each passing verse, parents cuddled their kids a little closer as they swayed along with the cadence of the story that Munsch calls his best book.

By the story's end, when the son carries his mother and sings to her that he'll love her forever, adults are wiping their tears.

"I would never read it to my kindergarten kids because I cry every time," confessed Margaret Joy, the kindergarten teacher who passed on the love of Munsch books to her daughter, Danielle Cloutier. "It's such a wonderful story about love."

Just a few children and parents got their favourite Munsch books autographed at the end of the show before ushers blocked the stage stairs. "He's not well," explained one usher. "We really shouldn't have allowed any kids up there."

cprete@thespec.com

905-526-2487

with files from the Guelph Mercury

Showtime

Who: Robert Munsch, Live Storytelling

Where: Hamilton Place

When: Thursday, Nov. 6, at 6 p.m.

Tickets: $18 ticketmaster.ca or 905-527-7666