Marketing wonks & "adult" books for kids

[I, Cosh]

I was in Waterstones today and was pretty surprised to see that David Eddings' Belgariad books are being repackaged and marketed for kids as "an epic coming of age tale." They don't appear to be abridged in any way, so the whole exercise would seem to be simply the direct opposite of the "adult" editions of Harry Potter.

It does seem a bit strange, though. I was about 11 or 12 when those books first came out and I absolutely loved them. Having to wait a year or so between volumes was far worse than waiting seven days to find out what the Alabammy Blimps were going to do to Dredd. The point being that these books are already perfectly suited for the age group so the cynical marketing ploy?

[scutfink]

'Kids like these books, let's move them into the kid's section of the bookshop, worked for Harry Potter'

Cynical marketing ploy, or intelligent marketing strategy?