The Save the Books Project evolved following a workshop at the Austin Public Library's Teen Central space led by the Vandegrift High Banned Books Club in the summer of 2022. The workshop was part of the Banned Camp series of programs put on in partnership between the Library and BookPeople to encourage community engagement with the topic of banned books. At that workshop, teens from VHS shared their experiences combatting book bans in their school district by creating a bookclub to read all the challenged books and write a response to their school board about why the books mattered. 

During the workshop, many other teens from the Central Texas area shared their own stories of speaking up at School Board meetings or writing to their representatives. Library staff realized that teens wanted a space to connect and build a community network of teens who wanted to protect their right to read, and so the Save the Books Project was born. The library started holding monthly meetups of teens, and in 2024 secured funding support from the Library Foundation to pay teen leaders to help shape the projects and activities of the group. Over time other partners including Students Engaged in Advancing Texas and Children's Defense Fund have become part of the supporting network to amplify the voices of teens around the right to read.