I am looking for a series of books I loved as a small child around 1982-83.  Each book dealt with the story of a historic figure such as George Washington who was depicted in a happy child-like cartoon format.  Each book also had a central theme such as honesty, courage, etc.  The main character would be faced with a problem taken from their actual life and during the problem an inanimate object (in the case of Nelly Bly it was her pen) would come to life and help them get through the problem using the theme word of courage, honesty, etc.  At the end of the story was a small biography of the person.  The books were in a large picture-book format with hard white covers with pictures of the character on the front.  I have no idea if all the books had the same author though I believe they al had the same illustrator.